Hi all,

can someone help me please in expressing the time?

If I want to say 12:00, I will say "saat on iki"

But if I want to say 10:02, is it gonna be "saat on iki "also????

Thanks

 12:00 --> saat on iki

10:02 --> saat on´u iki geçiyor  /  saat on sýfýr iki

Hello,

Here is the rule for telling the time:

If it´s the exact time, we read as "saat ..."

12:00 - saat on iki

10:00 -  saat on

15:00 -  saat üç (we mostly read it by 12-hour time)

If it´s ´half past ...´, we read it as "saat ... buçuk"

12:30 - saat on iki buçuk

01:30 - saat bir buçuk

14:30 - saat iki buçuk

If it´s ´... past ...´, we read it as " ...-(y)i ... geçiyor"

12:05 - on ikiyi beþ geçiyor

04:10 - dördü on geçiyor

17:22 - beþi yirmi iki geçiyor

If it´s ´... to ...´, we read it as "...-(y)e ... var"

11:50 - on ikiye on var

14:38 - üçe yirmi iki var

23:35 - on ikiye yirmi beþ var

And for ´quarter past ...´ and ´quarter to ...´

11:15 - on biri çeyrek geçiyor

16:15 - dördü çeyrek geçiyor

13:45 - ikiye çeyrek var

08:45 - dokuza çeyrek var

Same as others but we say ´çeyrek´ rather than ´on beþ´ mostly, but both are possible, of course.

another question,

why half past as in 12:30 we said "saat on iki buçuk" whereas quarter past we said

"on ikiyi çeyrek geçiyor"?

Why not "saat on iki çeyrek" or " on ikiyi buçuk geçiyor"?

I guess languages are different in how they say things. When you think about it, some people  say half one for the time, rather than half past one. In Germany and some Scandinavian countries, 1:30 is said as half 2 (that is like half an hour to 2). Really, 1/2 way between the hour is both half past and half to (an hour). So why not say simply half (buçuk), just like the Turks!

Your example also has a special name in Turkish,  12:30 = yarým, just like we have a name for 12:00 = noon. In Turkish you can also give digital time, eg 12:30 as saat on iki otuz

Well, you can say them as well, but they are not common in use, especially ´... buçuk geçiyor´.

Kemal, Faruk, Henry..thanks heaps!!

There is an excellent lesson here:
http://www.turkishclass.com/turkish_lesson_47